Catching Up

Amazingly Jeff gave me money for more paint and I got the shelf job completed to my satisfaction.  Shelf is up and I'm enjoying the use of it.  Looks terrific except that I didn't realize they sag in the middle a bit.  Well, guess we can't have everything perfect.

I've been communicating on a mental health site for many months and have been able to relate to so much being posted there lately.  Instead of a "like" button, I desire an "I love it" button.  lol  I've made so many new FB friends there.

The past few days I have squirrled away just feeling blue and sad.  Very much need my medicince refilled when next Wednesday gets here.  Oh the joys of depression.  Slept really well last night for the first time in about 3 months.  Woke up to rain which we so badly needed--no garden watering necessary today.  Just wish my moon flowers would hurry up and grow big.  Seems like I look at them everyday, water them, and encourage them, but they aren't getting very big.  I want them big and blooming NOW.  Maybe they won't bloom until next year; I'm not sure how long it takes to mature a moon flower plant.  I would have gone for walk in the rain except it was also lightening and thundering--too scarey to walk in the rain at times like that.

I hope it stays cool(er) today.  Haven't seen the forecast yet to know what is expected.  Got lots on my calendar to get done today.  I just like keeping a running log of things I need to accomplish--most of the time it keeps me accountable with very few exceptions.

For some reason eyes are still heavy even though I got at least 7 hours of sleep last night.  Day is rapidly progressing--won't be long before hubby will be up and then before I know it, it will be time to check on Dr. Weiner's office for transcription. 

I'm having diarrhea today so that may be my primary concern today--oh the joys of the backdoor two-step.  It's a fast paced little dance to be sure guaranteed to keep you movin'.   Won't drink my Zija today, but will resume tomorrow.  Gotta finish my samples at the least to see what effects happen.  I did loose 3 pounds yesterday according to my scales.  Zija or luck?!!!  I'm not sure yet.

May this day be a wonderful day since the Lord created it for us.

I got 'er done

Well, the shelf legs were a mess where the paper stuck to them and peeled the paint off.  Lucky for me, Jeff allowed me to buy another can of pain.  I finished the paint job yesterday and got the shelves back in the bathroom--they actually look pretty nice in a very dark blue.  I took out the wooden set of shelves that were just a little too large for in the small bathroom; they are now in my bedroom.  Since they have blue they go with the decor in there--no changes in color needed.  Nice accent piece.  Just have to think where I'm going to put the suitcases that used to sit there (hopefully I can cram them in the closet).  Then I have to find a new place to hang my antique chalk board.  Shouldn't be too hard to do.  Re-arrange some pictures in hall way and I think we can accomplish this.  Another mouse-house is going to have go into the bathroom.  It is already blue so don't have to repaint it...just hang on the wall and where I plan to put it, there is just enough room. 

I'll have move a hanger in the bathroom to put my nightgowns on, but that's not a really big deal--at least I don't think it is and should work out fine (better in fact).  Looking forward to finishing up this bathroom project--going to be so pretty in there when we get done.  Again thanks for my niece who is helping me undertake this giant project.  Without her it wouldn't have gotten done.

Been a few days since I blogged

Well, I've been quite busy here at home.  Gee, I'm glad I'm retired.  I love being able to work from home at something I really like doing--medical transcription.

I have been cleaning some more and repairing my upstairs bathroom.  So this makes carpets (paths where I can get to them), downstairs bathroom, kitchen, TV room, and living room almost done.  Things are looking better, as good as can be expected at this time.

Thanks to Lena Louise Wickham, one of my nieces, we got half the bathroom done and are going to work next month to see what else we can do in there to fix up before I paint.  Jeff wants woodwork back to original color.  I don't know if I'm up to tackling that or not.  Lena Louise says we would have to strip the paint off that's on there and that stinks badly.  Small room, hot, no screen on window in bathroom, don't know if I want to do that under the circumstances.  Instead will check out paint colors; maybe can get something in a brown that will suffice under the circumstances and get it darker instead of white around the window and on the doorway.

I wanted to paint a light blue, but I don't think Jeff is going to go along with that.  I started painting a pink shelf dark blue today.  He finished it up and broke the news to me that the newspaper stuck to the legs, so I'm thinking horrible deal--he thinks it will soak off--I'm thinking yes and the paint will come off with the newspaper.  Tomorrow will check that ugly situation out.  Hoping for the best but expecting the worst in that deal.  Needed to wait until less windy day to paint the legs so wind didn't carry so much paint away.  Paint one side, let it dry 10 minutes, turn it over and paint the other side but that's not what he did, unfortunately.  So I'm feeling uptight and frustrated right now.  Hoping it won't be as bad as it sounds like it will be.  He also said something about not getting full coverage but doesn't think it will show.  Yes, it will show.  Grrr.

Also the underside of shelves needed painted as well.  I'm almost certain he didn't do that.  Again he says it won't show.  Yes it will.  May have to make another trip to Wally World to get more paint tomorrow.  Don't think I have quite enough money either and don't know if he will give me any money for paint as he has already stated his opinion that it doesn't matter if it's not painted right.  Feel my blood pressure rising.  lol

I will just have to keep everyone posted. 

Haven't gotten any more of mom's tapes transcribed yet.  Jeff has to work tomorrow, Sunday and some Saturday--maybe when it's quiet I can work on that again.  

That's all that's on my mind right now.  Talk more later.

Just playing around--for Janice

Go to template, choose advanced on Left hand side, Page text then to the right the cursive I chose was homemade apple.  You can even choose the text color if you like something besides black.

Hope this helps you.

Excerpts from transcribing about Grandma Webster

I thought everyone might enjoy reading a few examples about mom's past.  Read the cost of rent of all things.  Wow!

I'm really excited about completing this project.  I think the whole family will enjoy it.  Refreshing my memories since I did this over 20 years ago has been a hoot.

You will find grammatical errors because I tried to type it just the way she spoke it, but if there are spelling errors--those are my typos.  lol

1.  MOM:  We found a little bitty old house that had never been…had too much done to it.  It had plasterboard, I believe…  No it didn’t have plasterboard; there was no plaster to it.  It was…just looked like cardboard, but that wasn’t what they called it.  I can’t think what they called it now that was on the inside.  There was no water there.  We had to carry water from--had to pull it up out by the bucket out of a well, and carry water about ½ block up to our house.  Of course, your dad carried most of the water, but we had a lot of fun.  We couldn’t have had more fun if had been millionaires, I think, when we lived there.  We rented the house for $3.00 per month.

2.  Me:  I don’t remember that.  I remember taking baths in a washtub in the middle of the kitchen floor, but don’t guess I remember how the water got—how we got rid of the water once we were done with it.  I don’t remember that.

MOM:  We had to carry it out.  We carried it out the backdoor and daddy had dug a ditch out there along the—out away from the house a ways—dug a ditch down through, that went out down toward the alley.  It usually drained clear out.  The ditch was not very deep.  We had it so it didn’t drain out and kill the garden.  

3.  MOM:  The one thing that I can think of, though, that was comical, the most funniest thing that happened when I was a kid.  I think—I don’t know whether I was—I was old enough to know better.  I don’t know just how old I was—I can’t remember that, but I must have been 8 or 9, probably 8 years old, I would say.  My aunt Em which was my grandmother Walmsley’s sister had baked me a nice, big angel food cake.  If I remember when I was a kid she always baked me an angel food cake for my birthday.  So she had made this big angel food cake for my birthday and had it all decorated up nice.   It was such a pretty thing.  I came home from school and there was nobody home.  I saw this cake I thought, “Hmm, that’s my birthday cake.”  Usually they didn’t have a party for me or anything—I just had birthday cake, you know.  There usually was no big gathering or nothing.  So I said to myself, “That’s my cake.  I guess if I want a piece of that cake, I could have a piece.”  Then I said, “My mother will kill me.  I don’t dare to get in that cake.”  I went off and did something else.  After a while I went back, and I saw that cake.  “Well, that is my birthday cake and Aunt Em made that for me.  I know she did, so I’m going to have a piece of that birthday cake.  Mom is going to whip me, but I don’t care.  I’m going to eat a piece of that cake.”  So I did.  Lo and behold, that time Aunt Em, I think—if I remember right, Aunt Em and Uncle Fritz came in with Dorothy, their daughter, and were going to eat supper with us that night.  We were going to have ice cream and cake.  I had already been in the cake.  My mother did pert near kill me for that.  (laughter from both mom and I)  “Boy that was good!” (meaning the cake)

Me:  I suppose that was at an age before there were mixes.

MOM:  Oh, yeah.  Homemade, made from scratch.  They didn’t even know what a cake mix was in them days.

4.   Anyway, I would bake bread on that kerosene stove with the oven that you sat over the burners.  I had one that sat over just one burner and then I had one that sat over two burners.  The two burner was the one I used when I baked bread because I always baked at least 2 loaves of bread and usually three. 

 

Daddy always liked homemade bread and we could clean it up pretty quick too.  I would bake bread even on the hottest day in the summer.  I would be baking because it pleased your dad.  Uncle Roy and Grandma came down one day and it must have been 90 degrees at least—maybe more than that outside—and I suspect it was hotter than that in the kitchen because I was baking bread in there.  Uncle Roy said, “Good God what do you mean by baking bread on a day like this?”  And I said, “No matter how hot it gets, my husband still likes homemade bread, so I make the bread.”  (laughter)  Which I did, and I enjoyed it.  I could bake rolls and bread, either one; and then I use to make coffee cakes—tea rings—got to making tea rings and got to giving them for Christmas presents once in a while.  Boy, everybody just raved about them.  And I gave loaves of bread sometimes too.

[insert by me]  I remember those tea rings—the house always smelled so good and those tea rings tasted so yummy.  This is one of my favorite memories from my childhood. 

What an evening this had been

I got started on my project of re-recording my mom's interview tapes.  My large cassette kept messing up so I got tired of playing with it; we were close to the end, but no cigar.

The transcribing part was fun, but I'm tired and worn out after 5 1/2 hours of re-recording and transcibing.  I'm relearning some things that I had forgotten she shared with me.  What a delight this project is going to be as long as my tapes don't keep messing up.  I have about 10 pages transcribed and that's not even one whole side of the other tape, if I remember right.  I got a little frustrated when I ran into difficulties.  Don't think I got to the other side of the big cassette.

However, I have done 3 sides of the micro-cassettes now.  Eyes too tired to do any more tonight.  It's so much fun listening to her tell about learning to cook and the heck she caught for getting into her own birthday cake when she was about 8.  And the love in her voice when she talks about her daddy or Pop as she often calls him and her grandma (my great grandmother who I adored--I consider her to be one of my guardian angels in life now).  Sad she can't speak of her own mother with as much affection.  She has talked about her first birth and the things she knew nothing about prior to going through the experience.  Pretty forthcoming information she is providing. And lots and lots of laughter taking place as she fondly remembers these things she is sharing.

I'm having a blast doing this project (the reliving the interview and the transcription part).  Looking forward to providing copies to members of the family once I get done, but hope no one is holding their breath as it took 5 1/2 hours just to barely scratch the surface.  There are at least 4 tapes and maybe a 5th one to re-record.

I'll keep plugging away.  Not often than the television is off so I can proceed with this type of project w/o interference.  Weekends usually a good time for something like this, but tonight was an exception.  Just nothing on that my hubby or I was interested in.

So wishing you all a good night and I'm gonna sign off and try to get some well-earned zzzzz's.

Thinking about the Future

Now I put the past behind me and look forward to the future.  Things I'm looking forward to are as follows:

Being married to Jeff for many a year to come.  He is my rock and my dearest friend who stands by me through thick and thin (thankfully lately physically it has been thinner [about 50 pounds thinner]) and financially thicker, but he's doing a fantastic job of helping me in that capacity.  What a guy! 

Now I have the downstairs pretty much under control at least to my satisfaction.  Will still pick at it a little here and there.  But heading up the stairs, I want to hang some pictures in the stairway.  May have to enlist hubby to help me do that as I'm on the short side and he can reach much higher than I.

I have my bedroom to clean thoroughly next and thank goodness there is air conditioning for that task. 

I also need to finish hanging curtains in my upstairs bathroom and the shower curtains and start cleaning off the walls to repair them.  Guess, I got that a little turned around.  Better hold on hanging those curtains or at least take them down when I start chipping off the junk that is currently curling and occasionally falling off up there.  Am sure hoping my niece from Barnard can help me repair what I need repairing.  I'm betting that she can.  She's not afraid to tackle just about any project whereas I'm skeptical on starting something that I know so little about doing.  Once I get started and with a little encouragement I an Gun-ho. 

Then there is more shampooing to do upstairs and the stairway to be vacuumed.  Lots to do yet, but gives me incentive to get out of bed in the mornings (just wish it wasn't quite so early as of late at 1:00, 2:00, 3:00, or 4:00 a.m.).  The good thing about early morning hours right now is that it isn't quite so hot in this house that only has 2 small room air conditioners.  I have a reasonably cool office where I spend most of my time anyway, and a nice cool bedroom for sleeping.  I wouldn't survive at all if I had to sleep in this heat.  Jeff wouldn't recognize the bitch I would become if I had to endure that feat.  I'm definitely not a hot weather fan.  I can dress warmer in the winter, but there's only so much you can take off in the summer and still be decent if someone knocks on your front door.  lol

After I get all these heavy duty jobs tackled and squared away FlyLady.com will help be stay organized and get my routine cleaning done.  FlyLady is a great site in case anybody is interested.  At least it sure helps me bunches.

Then I can look forward to having more time to get those memoirs written on a more regular basis that I have floating around in my head just waiting to get put on paper to be shared with family.  Also I have located 4 tapes on which I have interviews with my mother that I want to re-record on mini cassettes so I can transcribe them.  I'm thinking this may be hard as I listen to her voice again 8 years after her passing.  But she did such a great job of answering questions that I MUST get this chore accomplished.  And I am excited about this task!!

So, in pausing to review, I see there is much to look forward to in my future. 

Am praying to be cancer-free again this year and hoping to throw a party with my family and close friends in the spring of next year to celebrate if this is the case.  {Too cold in November to celebrate--weather too iffy}.

So closing this blog to get started as soon as tomorrow on the upstairs.  Too hot to work up there much today probably as it is already noon here in the middle of Kansas and no relief in sight yet for the heat wave we have been having for countless days and nights.

Here's a toast to you all with a cool smoothie.  May it be as refreshing as my life is right now. 

Thinking about the Past

The last couple of months I have been thinking about the past and here's some of the things running through my mind.

First of all, I met a special man on the internet and we were married 3 years later (2003).  Yep 8 years (April 23) ago that we moved my stuff either into storage or into his home which is now our home.  I have hunted and hunted for things over the years and it has been very difficult to find my things except what was put in the bedroom upstairs or into storage.  So, I started thinking about cleaning things out and finding my valued things, parting with that not so valuable to me, and pitching what was worthless to me anymore. 

I bet I've pitched approximately 12 large trash bags of things.  I've donated at least 6 carloads of things to the local Salvation Army that once meant something to me, fit me (clothing) before I lost 47 pounds in the past 2 years, and just in general felt like sharing with others.  I've sold some things, but had so many yard sales the year before (2010) that I just didn't want to tackle another! 

So, then I got busy and shampooed carpets where I could and, in general, started taking more pride in what our home looks like.  Oh, yes, we still have thing stacked, but there is some organization to the chaos I was feeling prior to my cleaning spree. 

So I have our couch moved into the TV room so there's more room for visitors to sit and chat a spell.  I have my antique Duncan Phyfe buffet in the TV room and have my arts, crafts, and some scrapbooking supplies stored away in there, where I'm thinking I should be able to find them at will now. 

Things are definitely looking better as I begin to look toward the future.